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My friend Amanda Dykes recently asked me to participate in a blog hop. It’s one you may have seen floating around the writer-blogosphere in the past few months, called “The Next Big Thing.” The purpose is simply to give you a peek inside the current or latest projects of different authors, as a new way to introduce you to books you may enjoy.
Most of you know about my non-fiction, Pioneering Today, but here is a little sampling of the novel I’m starting:
The Homestead-where my dad grew up
1. What is the title of your book? The working title of my new novel is A Pioneer Heart. My heroine is caught in the hard life as a logger’s daughter at the turn of the century. Her father is prone to drink and when she meets a local musician, she sees a way out from the rough life in the mountains. But a quiet hard working farmer tempts her to stay, though it means giving up her dreams of escape.
2. Where did the idea come for the book? My family settled in the mountains where I live back in the early 1940′s after migrating from the hollows of North Carolina. My father was a logger and I used to ride with him in his log truck up the steep mountain roads. I fell in love with this valley among the twists and turns of the switch backs, each one revealing staggering evergreens and snow capped spires of the Cascades. I wanted to tell a story of the incredible strength, courage, and sacrifice the men and women made who carved out homes and lives here.
3: What genre does your book fall under? Historical Christian fiction with a love story.
4. What other books would you compare this story to within your genre? It’s similar to Julie Cantrell’s, Into the Free, and Joanne’s Bischof Be Still My Soul, which are two of my all time favorite books. If I can come close to spinning a story as well crafted as theirs, I will be honored.
5. What else about your book will pique readers interest? While the characters will be fictional, many of the incidents will be based on real events. I’ll have pictures of the cabin my dad grew up in, with no indoor plumbing, just a hand pump, and a single outhouse. He had to cross a creek to get to school, walk over four miles, and in the winter the bottoms of his pant legs would be frozen by the time he arrived. I can’t wait to share pictures of the cabins, the trails the heroine walks, and the cross cut saws and stumps still left standing almost a hundred years later.
While Pioneering Today-Faith and Home the Old Fashioned Way teach you the lifestyle of my grandparents, A Pioneer Heart, will let you live it.
Thank you for stopping by today and here’s two great ladies I’m thrilled to introduce you too.
Jessie Gunderson: Living, Loving and Laughing Out Loud! Sometimes redneck, often random but always Jessie. The insane life of a mom of five, freelance author, craft junkie living on a little farm in the Idaho mountains.
Jan Cline: Is the author of A Heart Out of Hiding. If you are cuddled up in your warm hiding place thinking you can make things happen without stepping outside, guess what? It never works. Our call to love and serve can’t be done through the keyhole in the closed door of our hearts.
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